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Friday, 10 May 2013

All good things... Eldar vs Blood angels 1500

With the time of the 4thEdition Eldar codex coming to an end,
as the 6thedition
codex creeps closer, this will be the last time i play with this codex. So my
last game is against Blood angels in a 1500 point game, the Scourging, with
vanguard strike deployment. Can i keep up my winning streak or
will my last game end in a loss.

The Armies

To finish off the 4thedition codex i carried on using my
evolving list, i might as well finish an era with the apex of my evolving list,
the list that has come from a very shaky start to become something good i feel.

Farseer – 100 (warlord: co-ordinated assault) w/ wraithguard

Fortune, runes of warding

10 Wraithguard – 396

Warlock, spiritseer, conceal

10 Guardians – 95

Scatter laser

5 Warp spiders – 110

3 War walkers – 180

Scatter lasers

2 War walkers – 120

Scatter lasers

Wraithlord – 155

Bright lance, missile launcher

The Baron – 105 w/ wraithguard

5 Warriors – 60

Blaster

Venom – 70

2 x splinter cannon, chain snares (because i have spare points)

Ravager – 105

3 x dark lance

Blood angels 1495

Reclusiarch – 130 (Warlord: Precepts of deception) w/
death company

10 Assault marines – 155

Melta gun, melta bomb

10 Tactical marines – 180

Lascannon, plasma gun

7 Death company – 140

Land raider - 250

Sanguinery priest – 75 w/ assault marines

Jump pack

Honor guard – 145

Banner

Vanguard veterans – 140

Power fist, power sword

Land speeder – 60

2 x heavy bolter

Land speeder – 60

2 x heavy bolter

Predator – 115

Twin-linked lascannon

Not a list that my opponent normally uses, which was
quite a shock to me but a welcome challenge. No power weapons on the death
company, what a nice surprise, but the vanguard veterans was not. While the
internet might say they are bad, they are far from it, being able to assault
from deep strike can be quite frustrating at times, can change games.

The Mission

We rolled for mission and got The Scourging,
deployment was vanguard strike. Taking it in turns to place the objectives they
ended up with one bottom left in the rocks (4 points), middle of the bottom in
trees (2 points), middle of the left in a swamp (1 point), middle of the table
in the forest (2 points), left top in trees (3 points) and top middle in the
rocks (3 points).

He won the roll for sides and set up first. The land
raider went in the middle of the table with the death company inside. To its
left was half a tactical squad, the other half in the rocks holding the
objective with a lascannon. The assault marines were split up, with half in reserve
(deep strike) and the other half behind the land raider accompanied by the
priest. The honor guard goes behind the tactical marines. Both speeders on the
right and the predator far left. Vanguard veterans go into reserve (deep
strike).

Blood angel deployment

I deploy with the guardians hidden in a forest, the
wraithguard in the middle with the big war walkers behind them. Both the
ravager and the venom hide behind the forest. The warp spiders went on the far
right (alone, maybe a mistake?) and the small war walkers hid in the forest on
the right.

Eldar deployment

Night fight: Turn 1

Steal the initiative:
No

The Battle

Blood angels turn 1

With night fight turn 1, one speeder moves around the
right to target the warp spiders while the other goes to the left. The half of
the tactical squad not defending the objective move forward, shielding the
honour guard, while the predator moves back.

Shooting starts with the tactical squad shooting the
lascannon on the wraithguard and manages to take 1 down. The speeder on the
right shoots at the warp spiders and kills a single aspect warrior, the one on
the left shoots at the guardians and kills 2 despite the cover and shroud. The
predator is just out of range of everything so the last shots come from the
land raider, the lascannons fail to do any damage to the wraithguard but uses
power of the machine spirit to target the guardians with its heavy bolter,
killing an extra 1. Obviously the shots from the dark spook the guardians and
they flee right off the table. First blood to the blood angels.

Eldar turn 1

I cast fortune to the wraithguard, and they move
forward towards the land raider, flanked by the wraithlord. The spiders move up
the right towards the land speeder, followed by the small war walkers. I move
the ravager to the right to target the land raider and the venom moves to shoot
tacticals.

3 dark light shots from the ravager into the land
raider and I only get a single glance. The wraithlord then shoots the land
raider and gets a glance, so it’s got 2 hull points left. Unleashing its
payload at the tactical marines the venom kills a single marine, the
special weapon. The small war walkers shoot at the speeder on the right, getting
a single penetrating hit, shaking it. The larger war walkers shoot at the
tactical marines killing 2 more.

Blood angels turn 2

Decent of angels is an interesting thing, both units
deep strike in and while the assault marines lock on right behind the ravager,
the vanguard veterans are placed behind the large war walkers, and they scatter
but only 1 inch. A very nice little rule decent of angels, the vanguard vets
use heroic intervention. Movement starts with the land raider going forwards, and
the death company get out, ready to charge the wraithguard. The tactical
marines move out of cover towards the 4 point objective. The honour guard move
forwards as the shaken speeder moves away from the spiders to try and live
another day. The predator moves forwards to get in range.

The shooting phase starts with the tactical marines
running towards the objective. The land raider splits its lascannon fire
between the wraithlord and ravager, dealing a wound to the lord and then
exploding the ravager. Behind enemy lines, the assault marines use their melta
gun and destroy the venom in 1 shot, killing 4 of the 5 warriors on board,
leaving the blaster alive. Both speeders shoot at the wraithguard and bring
down a single construct.

Assault phase, the Death company charge the
wraithguard, the Chaplin declares a challenge and the Baron steps up. The Baron
manages to deal a single wound to the Chaplin and takes none in return. The death
company however manage to deal enough wounds that 4 of the wraithguard fall! That
was surprisingly high but I hit and run away to the left. On the right the vanguard
veterans charge into the war walkers and I fail to get a single over watch hit.
After 4 krack grenades and a power fist only a single war walker remains.

Eldar turn 2

I cast fortune on the wraithguard again, then check
to see if the wraithlord was still in spirit seer range, which of course it
wasn’t due to my hit and run in the wrong direction. So I roll for wraithsight
and get a 1, so no wraithlord for me this time. The wraithguard move towards
the death company and the warp spiders move towards the objective in the woods.
The war walkers move to see the honour guard and the lone warrior moves to get
the assault marines melta gun to be the closest model to him.

Shooting from the wraithguard manages to kill a
single death company, the war walkers fair the same only killing 1 honour
guard. The warriors misses his blaster shot.

Assault phase and I decide (well I was convinced by
my opponent) that charging into the death company was a better choice than
getting charged, so in I went. The Chaplin and Baron go into a challenge again
with nothing happening, but the farseer shows his combat prowess cutting down 2
death company alone. No one else deals any wounds. On the other side of the
table the war walker manages to kick a single marine into oblivion before being
wrecked.

Blood angels turn 3

Again the tactical marines go after the 4 point
objective, the vanguard veterans now having a taste for war walkers go after
the other squad. The assault marines in the mid field and honour guard go
towards the wraithguard. The land raider moves between the warp spiders and
wraithlord. The predator moves to see the wraithlord. The other assault marines
go after the wraithlord.

Combined shooting from the assault marines, predator,
and lascannon from the tactical marines takes another wound off the wraithlord.
The land raider splits the fire from its heavy bolter into the war walkers with
a single glance, and a lascannon into the wraithlord, killing it. To finish the
phase the speeders kill off the last warrior.

Assault phase and the assault marines and honour
guard join in the fight against the wraithguard. Somehow after 12 wounds I manage
to save every wound, I fail to deal any wounds with the wraithguard and hit and
run away to the left again. The vanguard veterans attempt to charge into the
war walkers but they fail to make it though cover.

Eldar turn 3

I fortune the wraithguard again and they move towards
the tactical marines going for the 4 point objective. The warp spiders go after
a land speeder, and the war walkers move to get away from the vets.

Shooting from the war walkers kills 2 of the
veterans, the warp spiders miss every shot on the land speeder. The wraithguard
kill the tactical marines off.

Blood angels turn 4

The land raider moves to the war walkers while the
speeders go hunting spiders. Carrying on the hunt, the assault marines, death
company and honour guard chase the wraithguard.

In a spectacular display of shooting the land raider
explodes both of the war walkers. The speeders kill of 2 spiders while the rest
of the army shoots at the wraithguard to no effect.

Assault phase and only the assault marines manage to
charge into the wraithguard, 1 assault marine dies to over watch. The champion
issues a challenge and the farseer accepts, but fails to deal a wound and takes
1 for his trouble. 1 wraithguard dies in combat and I failed to deal any
wounds. I hit and run towards the 4 point objective.

Eldar turn 4

I cast fortune on the wraithguard and they
wraithguard hold the objective.

The spiders manage to wreck the speeder while the
wraithguard fail to kill the assault marines.

The wraithguard attempt to charge the assault marines
but I roll 3 and fail the charge.

Blood angels turn 5

The assault marines on the right go after the warp
spiders while the death company and honour guard close in on the wraithguard.

The land raider evaporates a warp spider with its
lascannon and the last one dies to the tactical marines. The predator kills a
single wraithguard which reduces the squad down to toughness 3!

Seeing an opportunity the assault marines charge into
the wraithguard but no one dies, I hit and run away up the table.

Eldar turn 5

I fail to cast fortune on the wraithguard rolling a
good old 11, that’s quite a rare event. Now I'm in trouble here, I only have 1
course of action I can see to get a draw. Getting a victory at this point is
way out of the window. So I break off the Baron from the squad (raising them
back up to T6) and he goes after the tactical squad. The wraithguard move back
towards the assault marines, currently blocking the way to the objective.

Shooting phase and the wraithguard kill 2 marines,
and up the table the baron kills a single marine.

Assault phase, and the Baron charges into the
tactical squad, failing to kill any marines. We check and he is in range to
disrupt the marines holding the objective. The wraithguard charge into the
assault marines and kill 2, but the last remaining marine passes its moral
test, preventing me from over running into the objective.

I finish off my 4th edition codex with a
loss, well all good things come to an end. It has been fun using the
wraithguard list and I hope when the 6th edition codex I can still
use some variant of it. I’m not expecting it to stay, and I'm expecting the
conceal power to either disappear or to be changed to giving shroud or stealth.
With a new codex come new tricks to learn so It will be a fun little experience
and I look forward to. It’s a shame it took me so long to come up with a good
list, but at least I got to play with it for a little.

Anyway what did I learn from this game?

·Wraithlord: I need to make sure
he stays in range of a spirit seer or psyker in general. If I hadn’t hit and
run in the wrong direction the wraithlord could have destroyed the land raider
and possibly caused a lot more carnage. Well if they keep wraithlords the same
it will be something to keep in mind.

·Hit and Run: In this game I hit
and run in the wrong direction a few times, I need to be more careful with what
way I go.

·Deep strike: The assault
marines appearing behind my lines was difficult to deal with, I need to find
some way to deal with this, either a large squad to bubble wrap my important
units, or intercept, to deal with the problem straight away.

Well that’s it for the Eldar for now, at the time of
writing this its about a month and a half away, but it’s probably only 2 weeks
away when it gets posted.

3 comments:

Hey! I've talked to you a little on dakka(trogdor the burninator), and have lurked around your site for awhile now. I enjoy your battle reports, and am looking forward to seeing what you can do with the new Eldar codex when it comes out. I have played Eldarin 2nd, 3rd, and 4th and sorta fell out of them for awhile now, but have high hopes that this relaunch will be enough to pull me back in. I've been playing for close to 15 years, and am a little bored with marines (and variants) and as much as I love my goofball Orks, id like something different, so hopefully for us the future will be good to the pointy earred race!

Good to see you commenting here as well then :) glad to hear from people who read the battle reports. Hopefully when the new codex lands we will have loads of options for builds. Like when the 4th edition codex came out we had options for Saimm Han armies, Iyanden and so on, but that it takes it a little further so if i wanted to do, say a scouting army, using just the elements that are commonly used during the early stages for hit and run attacks (war walkers, vypers, rangers) it would be great. Doubt it though.

Make sure you drop me a comment when the codex comes out and let me know what you think of the new space elves.